BTS Indonesian Fans Plant 8,735 Saplings to Celebrate Jimin's Birthday

BTS Jimin / Photo by Big Hit Entertainment

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] To celebrate the birthday of BTS member Jimin, Indonesian fans planted 8,735 mangrove seedlings along the coast of Central Java.

According to the Jakarta Post on the 12th, Asa (24), an Indonesian BTS fan, proposed a project through social media such as Instagram to plant 1,000 mangrove seedlings from September 25 to October 5, ahead of Jimin's 26th birthday (October 13).

Within nine days of proposing the project, over 1,800 BTS Indonesian fans participated in donations, and a total of 8,735 seedlings were actually planted in Bedono Village, Demak Regency, Central Java coast.

Bedono Village has suffered damage such as two villages being submerged and about 250 households relocating due to severe coastal erosion over the past 20 years.

Areas where mangroves grow densely serve as a "natural barrier" against coastal disasters. In Sri Lanka, where the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck, villages with mangroves had 2 casualties, while those without had 6,000 deaths.

Asa said, "At first, to celebrate Jimin's birthday, I planned to put up congratulatory ads on billboards in Korea, but I gave up due to the COVID-19 situation," adding, "I never dreamed that the mangrove planting project would be such a huge success."

He said, "I live in Makassar, Sulawesi Island, so I couldn't go to the planting site myself, but other ARMY (BTS fan club) members participated as volunteers," and added, "They said they were happy."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.